December

DECEMBER:

We went to Watt's tree farm and picked out our Christmas tree.  We were going to go out to choose and cut down our own tree, however Nolan saw all the trains they have inside so we had to quickly pick a tree so we could go look at the trains.  :)  We later had a lot of fun decorating the tree.  It's fun getting out the ornaments and remembering when, where, or who we got them from.  Nolan was very excited about several of the ornaments and wanted to take pictures of them after we took pictures of him and Lucas by the tree.  Over the holiday season the ornaments were frequently moved by a certain 3-year-old.  

Nolan and I continued our Christmas tradition of making and decorating Christmas cookies.

We had our Christmas with Kevin's family on the Friday evening before Christmas.  It was special to be with them and to see the boys opening gifts.  Lucas was more interested in eating the wrapping paper than the actual gifts.  Nolan was super excited about opening gifts and it wasn't until everything was unwrapped that he went back to see what he had actually received.  

After spending Friday evening with Kevin's family we went to my mom's where we spent time with my family.  It was wonderful to have everyone together for a few days.  We were at my mom's through Christmas day.  We then headed home to Indy to see what Santa had left for us at our house and to have our little family Christmas.  How special it was.  We opened gifts, had a spaghetti dinner, and then drove around looking at Christmas lights  with popcorn and cuddled under blankets.  I have always loved Christmas but having children at Christmas is truly special and magical.  I really enjoyed starting some new traditions this year and look forward to starting more as the boys get bigger.  

Nolan doing one of his new giant floor puzzles.  He LOVES puzzles and does really well doing them on his own.  

Here are a few pictures from our time at my mom's.

This month we introduced the sippy cup to Lucas.  He did really well holding it and putting it to his mouth, but I don't think he really drank much from it.  We introduced the sippy cup at the recommendation of our doctor after his 6 month appointment in an attempt to get him to drink more during the day.  I'm not sure if I have written about this struggle or not, but since I started back to work when Lucas was 12 weeks we have struggled to get him to eat well during the day.  The boy can definitely be stubborn and has not taken the bottle well.  We have tried many different bottles but up until last friday he was only taking 4-8 ounces all day.  He obviously has continued to grow, which at the end of the day is the most important thing, however after many months of sleeping through the night he started waking up frequently at night to nurse trying to make-up for what he wasn't eating during the day.  We now think we might have found a bottle that he is more willing to take and he has increased his intake by quite a bit.  Today he had 11 ounces total! :)